Stargate Universe: Season 3
by The Final Lament
Summary: As Destiny reaches it's new galaxy the crew awakes. Supplies and power low they must find a way to survive till Destiny can recharge. And then comes the hard part - staying alive from there.
1. Destiny's Choice

Author's Note: Stargate Universe has died a horrific premature death like so many of SyFy's successful series – seriously why is it that whenever one of their shows starts getting viewers in excess of a million they kill it off? Still I digress, I very much doubt you want to read a brief rant on the perceived stupidity of killing the series but instead to read this continuation of it. I imagine over the next month or two there will be a number of continuations, at the time of writing this is the second. I will not be writing it in the style of a TV episode – I simply haven't a clue how – but I will do my best to keep it true to the spirit of the show.

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><p><p>

Destiny had left the drone's galaxy behind. Doubtless in time the drones would fail, time would cause circuitry to degrade, coding to corrupt and other species would take arms against them. Destiny would not be there to witness it however. Nor did Destiny care, the ship had proven itself to have a limited sense of AI and this AI merely regretted – if regret was something an AI could feel – or perhaps more accurately was plotting a new section of the long term course to return to this galaxy to collect the background radiation readings it had been created to collect.

Destiny was adaptable enough to know that it could be a thousand years before it entered a new galaxy. Destiny also knew the humans would eventually die, leaving it to carry on it's mission. Long after even the humans stored in it's memory had been reduced by time to mere fragmented code Destiny would return. But that time was distant even by the standards of an aeons old spaceship. For now Destiny had a choice to make.

If it wouldn't have drained power – minuscule though it may have been - a small red light would have been blinking on the control deck. Destiny had recorded huge swathes of data about the current crew, now it had a choice to make. To make the jump one stasis pod would have to be sacrificed. Despite the damage done by the drones Destiny had come to rationalise the crew as necessary, the drones and the other, as yet undesignated alien race had done a lot of damage to the old ship. Yet the crew had repaired it. Like white blood cells and platelets they had destroyed threats to the ship's continued existance and repaired damaged systems. Without the crew the vessel would be floating through space a whole galaxy away thousands of years between it and the next star. And now it had to choose one of them to die, for the sake of the rest. Destiny's computational power was great but the problem was equally complex. If it chose one of the crew members whose role in day-to-day functions was not necessary for the crew's continued survival then the damage to the optimal capacity of the inhabitants would be minimised. Yet the drain on power would still mean hundreds of years till the pods reopened.

The fully functional pods were out of the question then. Which left seven people to choose from.

The scientist Dr. Nicholas Rush, who was one of the few who truly understood the importance of Destiny's mission and despite the human's great self-centredness would according to probability be willing give his life for the ship and had demonstrated this on multiple occasions. But Rush would be useful in repairing the Destiny.

Or the leader Colonel Everett Young, another of those who understood the mission and human who had shown capacity for self-sacrifice. But leaving the crew leaderless would greatly reduce the crew's optimal capacity.

Or the soldier Sergeant Ronald Greer, who had made it perfectly clear he had no objections to dying for the sake of the crew. But had been one of the greatest living asset's to the ship's defence.

Or the civilian Camille Wray, who logically was expendable as she provided very little in the way of contribution. But she had become the moral voice of the crew and the effect on moral and thereby performance would be severe.

Or the officer Lieutenant Matthew Scott, who had proven of equal value to Greer in defence of ship and crew and had not shown the same level of self-sacrifice. But the impact of his death would have a minimal impact, Scott was likeable but only one person had shown any great emotional attachment to him.

Or the medic Lieutenant Tamara Johanson, who had proven invalueable to the continued health of the crew.

Or the civilian Chloe Armstrong who despite lack of training was exceptionally useful in the day to day running of the ship and who's death would reduce Lt. Scott to minimal use. But unlike the others in the damaged pods filled no essential role.

Then there was the pod it couldn't access which according to the readings had been accessed but was drawing absolutely no power from the ship.

The choice's deadline approached. Destiny shut one of the pod's down leaving it's occupant unconscious with barely a few hours of air left until their final destiny turned out to be a dark, cylindrical coffin.

Two years of FTL left Destiny carried on through the void between galaxies as a human being, not even aware this was the case, breathed their last few hours away.

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><p><p>

Author's Note: The show has actually gone to great lengths to indicate Destiny as a character, also this is the first time I have ever named a chapter.


	2. Awakening

Author's Note: This has honestly been the most overwhelmingly positive response I have ever had for a first chapter – or in most cases an entire fic. Thankyou all for your reviews I have enough now to do something I've always wanted to try but never had enough reviews for it to seem worthwhile.

Sapar: Thx for the review, your guess about the pod is pretty much correct and I will hopefully be wriiting SGU stuff for a long time to come.

Lame: Thx for the review. The chapters will start getting longer as I get used to the setting I'm writing in. As to the plot the basic plot is the same as SGU's plot has always been. Unlike SG1 it isn't about discovering new technologies, or (with Atlantis) defeating a genocidal alien race. SGU has always been about surviving. I fail to see how a basic plot sketch would take more than ten minutes maximum.

lylev: Thx for the review, the typo you mentioned had been fixed. Feel free to say if you spot more

SusanMarieS: Thx for the review, the rest of the crew will appear shortly however I think if I'd listed all of Destiny's crew the chapter would have lost a lot of it's impact.

samcarter2: Thx for the review, positive comments always welcome, negative ones as well providing they aren't just flames.

ResistanceIsNotFutile: Thx for the review, I can't wait either.

lee: Thx for the review, Eli's fate will be revealed, I left it deliberately ambiguous in the first chapter.

And now for the big reveal I believe...

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><p><p>

As one the stasis pods slid open. Friends and colleagues stepped into their new lives as easily as they'd stepped out. The drones were gone and life would continue.

Two pods did not, however in the confusion that followed it would be some time before anyone noticed who was missing.

"Dr. Rush! I want a report on all the ship's systems as soon as possible."

"I'll put Volker and Morrison on it immediately."

"No, you won't, you'll do it yourself, if there's something wrong with the ship I _need_ to know."

"I can't. I'm busy." snapped Rush, "Now if you'll excuse me I need to get to the interface room." Rush moved to walk away when Young grabbed him by the arm and spun him so they were face-to-face.

"What could possibly be more important right now than ensuring the ship is not about to fall apart on us?"

"I'm looking for Eli."

"Surely you can just check the pod?"

"I would except the pod is no longer there." Rush shouted, in one of his periodic outbursts.

"That shouldn't be possible. Should it?"

"No. Hence why I'm busy."

Young walked alongside the frustrates scientist, reaching a decision as they entered the interface room. "Have Volker and Morrison see to the system diagnostics and repairs. You find Eli."

Young would have added more if the radio hadn't burst into life.

"Col. Young? This is Greer. We need you in the stasis chambers _now."_ There was an almost uncertain tone to Greer's voice.

"This is Young. What is it, Sergeant?"

"You need to see this for yourself sir. Greer out." There was that uncertain tone again, as though the ever resolute sergeant wasn't sure what he was supposed to do.

"You'd better see to that. Greer may be a soldier but he's not a fool, if he says it's important it probably is." This was from Rush who was already bent over a console typing madly.

"I'm on my way." Young said into the radio, breaking into a jog.

"This isn't possible. I saw him get out of the pod. I saw him." It had been ten minutes since Sgt. Greer had radioed Young and he was becoming increasingly agitated.

"Calm down Sergeant. I think it's safe to say he's been dead longer than a few hours." This was TJ, acting voice of reason for everyone in the stasis chamber.

"But I saw him, Lieutenant. I saw him. He was with us when we left the stasis room." Greer repeated.

"I know Greer. I was there as well."

It was at this point that Col. Young walked in. There was a general relaxation from the occupants.

"Sgt. Greer, what is it?"

"In the pod, sir. It's Lt. Scott, sir. He's dead, sir."

"Dead? How?"

"That's the thing sir. See for yourself."

The body of the late Lieutenant Matthew Scott was not in the best of condition. Two years being exposed to increasingly toxic air inside a small enclosed space can do that to a body. Rotten flesh clung to an off white skull, held on by what were probably quite fascinating species of mould and bacteria but which were entirely unwelcome in the circumstance. The only reason he was identifiable at all was his uniform.

Author's Note: Yes, I know it is still distressingly short, in my defence this is the first time I've ever had to use completely non-OCs and am having trouble adapting to the mindsets of the characters – although I think I can passably write TJ, Rush and Greer. This is also why Young may seem somewhat OOC. And I'm also sorry it took so long.

On the other hand I honestly think this fic is going to be the one to get me above the mediocre status.


	3. Beyond Comprehension

Author's Note: Space: the final frontier. These are the... Wait, wrong series. Sorry.

Again thanks for the reviews will again by answering them in chapter, partly because I'm still elated at the response and partly because it forces me to write more as having an Author's Note longer than the chapter is simply embarassing.

Samcarter2: Thx for review (again), sorry you had a bit of trouble with the speech I'll bear it in mind from now on.

A sitting duk: Thx for the review. Not sure about duty but I'll keep writing.

Sapar: Thx for the review (again). My killing Lt. Scott off was mainly a matter of expediency to be honest, he was the one member of the senior team where I simply couldn't get the mindset. However I will admit the potential to get Eli and Chloe together did indeed occur to me after I'd written it.

Obrusine: Thx for the review, I'm glad you like my take on Destiny however I honestly don't see how I cannot kill a main character off from the start – in fact I rather think I did lol – I did say right from the start that I wouldn't write it in the style of the show however I am trying to keep the characters' personalities so if you or anyone else can tell me where I'm going wrong then I'll be very grateful. Also I won't be scrapping what I've already written.

LadyGraySun: Thx for the review, all characters which are still alive will feature. To be honest it feels like I'm being put on a pedestal and it seems inevitable that I'm going to fall off it

LiveFreeDieWell: Thx for the review, all will be revealed in time.

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><p>"Do we know what caused the malfunction yet?"<p>

"Sorry Colonel, I've only got one set of hands and everyone else is busy. I can either find out what caused the stasis pod to malfunction or I can find Eli's pod. I simply cannot do both." Rush dictated, his irritation getting the better of him. "Which one am I supposed to choose?"

Young sighed. "Scott's dead but for all we know Eli's still alive. Lt. Scott will simply have to wait I'm afraid. So what have you got so far?"

"Well, I've got three kinos on search mode throughout the ship and I've been examining where the pod used to be. All that was left was this." Rush handed the colonel a small cylinder of metal. "This is the flux control for the pod. Think of it as a reusable Ancient fuse. The power must have spiked when we initially fixed it, this was the result, the spike was so great it melted the cathode. Basically it meant that short of taking one from another pod there was no way to fix it."

"And why is the pod gone?"

"That's the clever bit, with no way to regulate the power my guess is he tried rebuilding the pod and tying it into a system with it's own power supply."

"You say tried?"

"An operation like that would take at least a month. He would most likely have ran out of time."

"I see. Carry on searching till you're certain."

"I will, Colonel, I will."

Young went to leave before remembering something. "Oh and Rush? We need to report to Earth in three hours."

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><p>Volker and Morrison had finished inspecting Destiny's primary and secondary systems. It wasn't good, the damage by the drones was extensive with the only thing preventing them being exposed to freezing vacuum being the shields – and the constant use was taking it's toll with more than one generator was starting to malfunction. And those were only the major systems, the showers were unoperational and the kino dispenser had mysteriously overloaded to name just a couple of the minor FTL was also damaged, the long flight having overloaded another of the drives. The smart money was on Rush having a fit when he read it. They would have been right.<p>

"What's the problem this time Rush?"

"Well for one I won't be joining you in reporting to Earth."

"What's so urgent you can't spare half an hour for a basic report?"

"Where should I bloody start? We've got seventeen hull breaches in seven different sections of the ship, the shields could fail at any second and we don't know if we can jump to FTL. If I don't fix the shields by the end of tomorrow then we're probably dead, if I don't fix the hull breaches within the next week the power drain will leave us dead in the water, if we can't jump within the next three months our supplies run out and we die. Tell me Colonel does it sound like I can spare half a bloody hour?" Rush yelled, the damage to his beloved ship like a physical wound.

"Then why are you wasting time shouting at me. Get to work." Young said, his point – much to Rush's annoyance – undeniable.

"I'll get to work then. Tell Volker and Morrison to use the maintenance robot to start on the hull breaches, the less power the shields are using the less chance I'm going to be blown up in the process."

"Rush." said Young tiredly. "Bottomline this one for me."

"The bottomline is we are screwed beyond comprehension. Even with Eli helping chances are I wouldn't be able to fix the shields. Even if I can it's going to be patchwork at best which means we can't recharge Destiny's power reserves without frying the remaining generators, which is why I'm recommending we turn off every non-essential system including lighting and gravity and turn life support off periodically."

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><p>"Dr. Rush remains optimistic that he will be able to fix the shields before we need to recharge."<p>

"And the death of Lt. Scott?"

"Until the immediate crisis is over, General, we simply don't have the manpower to investigate the failure of Lt. Scott's stasis pod."

"Very well Colonel, if you don't report back in a week we will assume your repairs were unsuccessful."

"If that's all, sir, I would like to return back to the Destiny."

"Request granted. Dismissed."

Watching Col. Young's retreating back Brigadier General David Telford steepled his fingers and sank back into his chair. It had been a hard three years and it didn't seem they were about to get any easier.

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><p>Dr. Volker was similarly troubled and did not hesitate to voice this fact.<p>

"O- K... What do we do now?"

"Radio Rush and tell him to get his oversized ego down here to fix it." Morrison replied acidicly, three years in stasis having done nothing to improve his opinion of Rush.

"Why can't we fix it?"

"Because we need to program the other maintenance bot."

"Fair enough."

"Dr. Rush. We have a bit of a problem with one of the maintenance robots."

"Define problem." Rush asked, sounding unusually interested.

"Someone seems to have... dismantled it."

"I suspected as much, just power up the other one and get to work on the hull."

"Will do." said Volker, turning the radio off. "Any idea what that was all about?"

"Not a clue."

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><p>Author's Note: Thx again for the positive response. As suggested I am taking slightly longer with the chapters now but they are become steadily longer so there is some compensation for you the reader. I may take the time to finish a couple chapters I've half-written for other fic before getting back to it. So if anyone reading this is following HAMFisted or Shadow of the Night World then you probably have a chapter heading your way.<p> 


	4. Greatest Minds Do Not Think Alike

Author's Note: I want to be the very best; like noone ever was. To catch them... Damn, wrong series again. I know I promised a chapter for Shadow of the Night World before this but I've ran into some major writer's block on that front. Anyway, onto the reviews, sadly there aren't as many to reply to but I'll get over it.

Samcarter2: Thx for the review, glad to see I've learnt from my mistakes.

Sapar: Thx for the review, fortunately I've got a sciencey sounding explanation as a get out clause.

Ironic-hat: Thx for the review and the alert. Young is also a trained pilot and like I said previously, choosing Scott as the dead one was mostly a matter of expediency. I also briefly considered Chloe or Greer.

xLukeX: Thx for the review. Glad you like it but as to Eli I simply can't comment other than that I've been giving tiny little pointers as to what he tried to do.

Anyway on with the chapter...

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><p><p>

"Dammit!" Rush punched the wall hard enough to break a knuckle. Cradling his hand to his chest he used the other to pick up his radio. "Col. Young this is Rush. We have a problem."

"Go ahead Rush."

"One of the shield generators is beyond repair."

"I see. Or rather I don't. Surely there's a backup or redundancy."

"This is the redundancy Colonel. Without it we've got a gap in our shields."

"And for those of us who aren't following the cause and effect which makes this a problem?"

"We can't jump to FTL without tearing the ship apart."

"Thank you Rush. Is there anything that can be done?"

"Was I unclear when I said beyond repair, Colonel?" Rush answered, his irritation mounting further. "The only good news is that with Morrison and Volker's repairs we now have enough power to last two weeks. On the other hand Mr Brody has wasted the past twelve hours repairing the FTL Drives."

"So what would you advise, Rush?"

"Put everyone back into the stasis pods."

"Is that it? We just give up?"

"Colonel, we've got nothing. You can use the stones to see if anyone at the SGC has any ideas but at the very least we should reduce the ship to a skeleton crew."

"The crew won't like it."

"They seldom do in my experience."

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><p><p>

"Have you considered reconnecting the - ?"

"Won't work." Rush said. "You know you two are supposed to be the best scientists in the entire Milky Way." He added accusingly, "so why is it that you haven't had a useful suggestion between you?"

"Well sorry but I've never had to work with Ancient tech this old before, the configuration is completely different to anything we've come across before." replied Carter.

"Don't look at me, I just don't work well under stressless conditions." chipped in McKay.

"Look, the three of us have gone through every remote possibility of fixing this thing so we're going to need an alternative." Carter said, reasonably.

"I'm open to suggestions, Colonel. What's your plan? Build a new bloody generator?"

"You know that might actually work..."

"You cannot be serious."

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><p><p>

"Will it work?"

"I honestly don't know, Colonel. Col. Carter's idea is a long shot at best but the main problem is time constraints."

"Such as?"

"Such as we have two weeks of power and with the parts available it will take about a month to build."

"So?"

"So we put everyone except Dr. McKay, Col. Carter, Brody, Volker and myself into stasis and just hope we can do it on minimal power."

"That's it? That's your brilliant plan?"

"It's all we've got Colonel."

Col. Young sighed heavily. "I'll tell the crew to get back into the pods."

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><p><p>

Author's Note: Short I know but I hoped the scene jumps with give it more of a sense of progress compared to previous chapters and it seemed an appropriate point to end.

Let's just hope Destiny doesn't decide to kill anyone else off.


	5. The Best Laid Plans of Mice and AI

Author's Note: Oops wrong one again. Think I'd have learnt by now. Anyway once again an overwhelming positive response, now at over 20 reviews for the fic (all time record) and 43 story alerts (which depressingly is more than every other fic I have), now once again it's review answering time.

Flamekat: Thx for the review. I'm glad you like it so much.

Sapar: Thx for _all_ the reviews, no Eli is not coming to the rescue over the shields.

xLukeX: Thx for another review. Sorz again about the chapter length.

samcarter2: Thx for so many reviews, it's really uplifting.

GYY: Thx for the review. No Destiny is not a serial killer. Yet...

Seth: Thx for the review, positive responses always appreciated.

: Thx for the review, even if you didn't leave an alias of any kind, yeah the super scientist to save the day and all that jazz

Anyway here's the fic:

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><p>"Well that's the casing in place, let's just hope this works." Carter stated.<p>

"Look on the bright side, if it malfunctions we'll never even know." Rush replied wryly.

"Oh that's the bright side is it? That we won't have time to realise we're dead. Surely Carter and I should go back? Better not to risk the three of us." McKay said.

"Look Rodney, it's going to take all three of us to compensate for any power spikes, we're too low on power to risk the time needed to program a compensator, we simply set the ship on auto-pilot, it'll fly into the star and refuel and once it's out we shut the generator down and actually write the software."

"I still don't like this plan."

"You never like the plan."

"Can you two break it up?" Rush asked, "Honestly you're like a married couple the way you two bicker."

"Anyway, as I was saying." Carter rapidly changed the subject. "We should be entering the star in less than ten minutes."

"Are you sure you couldn't find the suits? Because I'm feeling rather unsafe without at least some protection." McKay asked in the vague hope the answer had changed in the last three minutes.

"Yes I'm certain. All three suits are missing." Rush snapped before speaking into his radio. "Mr Brody, Mr Volkner, how long till we reach the star."

"Just under three minutes."

"Okay, in that case tell us when it reaches two minutes then shut down the computers." Rush ordered.

"Understood."

"Guess that just leaves us. Anyone got a preference on what they monitor?" Rush asked the other two scientists..

"I'll take the EM readings." McKay quickly responded. The option was something of a double-edged sword, while they were the least likely to cause a problem any spike could have fatal ramifications for the rest of the ship..

"I'll take radiation if noone objects." Carter said with not quite as much enthusiasm.

"Then that leaves me with the power levels." Rush finished. "Mr Brody. How long?"

"Two minutes... now."

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><p>"It was a pleasure working with you Colonel, Doctor." Rush said, shaking them both by the hand.<p>

"Likewise." replied Carter.

"Well we'd better be going back then." McKay pointed out before disconnecting the stone.

"McKay's right I'm afraid, we're needed back on Earth."

"Well goodbye Colonel. Now if you'll excuse me I need to wake up the crew"

"So no problems?" Col. Young inquired.

"A few minor glitches but the shield generator should hold." Rush answered. "For the moment the Destiny has all it's systems running. For once."

"Well that's a first."

"Now if you'll excuse me I'd like to get started on my work before we suffer another catastrophe."

"I'm afraid it will have to wait Rush. We still need to figure out what happened to Lt. Scott."

"Very well, I'd better get started then."

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><p>"Mr Brody, tell me, what do three missing envirosuits, an overloaded kino dispenser, a charging plate and a missing stasis pod have in common?"<p>

Brody sighed, noone had seen Rush for eight hours before he'd walked into the mess hall and the first thing the borderline insane scientist had done was ask him what seemed to either be a riddle or a joke.

"I haven't the foggiest although I assume you know?"

"Eli."

"That makes no sense."

"Just think about it, what would you have done is his situation?"

"I would have been forced to rebuild the pod. And... and uh... I'd need a way of regulating the power so that means... that... I would have looked for a secondary system with at least partially it's own power supply because that way it would have built in power regulation."

"Very good and?"

"And that explains why the kino dispenser and charging plate are fried, Eli tried to use them but they couldn't handle the power involved, and the suits are missing because Eli would have been able to use them to extend how long he had to rebuild the pod."

"Well done, Mr Brody. So?"

"So where's Eli?"

"My point exactly, I've checked every system on this ship that could have been used and they're either fried or untouched, there's no sign of him anywhere."

"Shouldn't you be working on Lt. Scott's death?"

"I figured that out hours ago, the only thing I'm struggling with is how to break it the Colonel."

"Break what to me?" asked Young from behind him.

"Ah Colonel I didn't notice you come in. Have you tried the soup? Becker's really done a good job today." Rush said hurriedly.

Young sighed, "Just tell me Rush, what happened to Scott's pod."

"It was shutdown to save power." Rush explained tiredly.

"Are you saying Eli killed Lt. Scott?"

"Hardly anything as normal as that Colonel. Lt. Scott's killer... is Destiny."

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><p>Author's Note: Well this would roughly constitute the plot of a single episode of SGU, I've found Rush really easy to write, just think tired and cynical. It's still shorter than I'd like but they're starting to get to my usual 1000 word average with the occasional mega chapter. Sadly one reason they tend to be shortish is that I can never resist a cliffhanger. Also the reason this chapter took so long is that I finally finished what is (in my opinion) my 2nd best fic – Shadow of the Night World – and I was hellbent on finishing it before I ran out of steam.<p>

Again please R&R and point out any mistakes.

Author's Note: Thx Sapar for pointing out that my scene breaks had been deleted during upload - again! - this has now been fixed.


	6. Yet More Problems

Author's Note: Sometimes I feel like I'm drowning in fics, really need to finish some of them so this may be the last SGU chapter for quite some time. Now to the review answering, only a few this time so it will be quick.

Sapar: Thx for all the reviews, particularly the last one, I hate it when my scene breaks get deleted – something over half my fics suffer from - so again thanks. Sorz about not writing about the refueling in greater depth but I simply hadn't a clue what to write, astrophysics isn't my strongpoint.

samcarter2: Thx for yet another review, as to the scene break problems that has been sorted (see above), thank you for all the support.

xLukeX: Thanks for the reviews, sorry but not giving any spoilers.

Chili: Thx for the review, glad you like it and I'm sorry if you think I've screwed up Rush's character, problem is he's slowly got less and less angry over the series, now I personally just see him as mildly irritable.

Raydon: Thx for the flame. I realised I was probably overdue one. My adivce learn to spell before you insult

Brian: Thx for the review, here's the chapter.

Tic-Tac: Thx for the review, glad you like it so much.

Odessa: Thx for the review, I'm sorry you think I screwed up on Rush but he and Eli essentially act as a scientific mouthpiece and since discovering Destiny's mission Rush has actually been a lot nicer.

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><p>"Move it people, you know the drill, test the food for toxins, if it passes stockpile it. We also need new plant cuttings for hydroponics and any water we can get would be a big help. Now move!" Against all odds the now Lt. Greer managed to bellow it all in a single breath, still very much a sergeant at heart.<p>

Only grumbling slightly the crew proceeded to the open wormhole, which promptly closed.

"Dr. Rush, this is Greer, we have a situation in the gate room."

"You'll have to be a bit more specific, Serg- Lieutenant. I'm busy."

"The gate just shut down."

A sigh came through the radio. "I'll be right there."

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><p>"I'm sorry Colonel but I simply don't know, noone has <em>ever <em>had to fix a gate before. The DHD yes, but never the actual gate." Rush explained, torn between scientific fascination and borderline-homicidal frustration as he ran yet another gate diagnostic.

"What about those scientists from earlier, Macaw or something?" Young suggested.

"Considering their track records I would imagine Dr McKay and Col. Carter are busy stopping their own apocalypses by now and it wouldn't be anything but a hindrance even if they are available. Like I said Colonel, noone has ever had to do this before, it would take too long to simply bring them up to speed, especially given the peculiarities of Destiny's gate." Rush pointed out with minor glee.

"Well what do you know so far?" Young inquired.

Before Rush could answer the monitor gave a loud bleep. Rush took one look at the results and sighed heavily.

"Well for starters, if these results are right then it's not the gate that's the problem."

"Which means?"

"Which means we're back at step one, in fact we're even further back than step one as step one was that we had a problem with the gate." Rush said, raising his voice slightly in frustration.

"What about the shuttle?"

"You've lost me Colonel. What about the shuttle?"

"Could we use it to reach the planet?"

"Not a chance, the planet is situated in the centre of the orbit of two binary stars, just far enough away from each to sustain life, problem is the gravitational stresses would tear the shuttle apart before you even got close."

"There must be something."

"You'll need to give me time Colonel, give me ten hours and then I'll tell you what our options are."

"That bad?" Young asked tiredly.

"Maybe..."

"Are you sure?"

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><p>"I've double and triple checked. It's not navigation or the DHD." Dr. Brody answered<p>

"It was worth a try at least." Rush said, shaking his head sadly. "If it's not internal then the problem must be outside the ship. Tell Volkner, Morrison and Park to meet us in the control room, there's got to be something in the sensors."

Tiredly Brody got out of his chair and went to find the mentioned scientists, it seemed like it was just going to be another day at the office.

* * *

><p>"Can't we just find another planet?"<p>

"I'm afraid not Colonel. We'll run out of water a week before we reach another life sustaining planet." Rush replied.

"I see. And the risks?"

"Acceptable."

"If your sure."

"I'm not sure at all Colonel, we simply don't have any other option, the gravitational distortions are preventing the gate from getting a lock and also are too strong for the shuttle. Now we have an ellipse of space where the Destiny will be outside of major gravitational pull which means we should be able to dial the gate."

"And if we don't land in this bubble of yours?"

"The ship get's torn apart by gravitational stress, even in the bubble we'll have ten hours at most before the stress starts to tell."

"Very well, I'm presuming you've already done the calculations."

"Of course." Rush went to leave before remembering something. "Oh and Colonel? May I suggest you use the opportunity to get some time planetside yourself?"

"Very well."

"Any luck with any of our other problems?"

"Possibly, Colonel, possibly." Rush answered ominously.

* * *

><p>Author's Note: All will be revealed in time. Sorry if this chapter is a bit OTT on the science but the show always made a point of explaining even if we didn't understand it at times.<p>

Again I would like to point out that the next chapter will probably be months from now as I finish off other fics so I can put all my effort into this one.


	7. The Deadliest Blue

Author's Note: Ok so I lied about the whole finishing all my fics first thing. I just write what I feel like writing at the time. As I'm currently on holiday I've decided to instead write a load of chapters for different fics and just dump a chapter into each fic once a week providing I wrote a chapter for that fic. Now the review reviewing. Thx for the unusually long responses although my review pool is visibly starting to dry up each chapter.

xcloneecko: Thx for the review, I'm sorry to say you're wrong about Greer being unable to be promoted, this is what's known as a field promotion. Glad you liked Telford's promotion, I thought it a good way to get across the passage of time.

ColeGreen: Thx for the review, while I will agree that I focus too much on Rush, Young and the science I disagree entirely that I have Rush behaving like in season one. My own interpretation of Rush as I'd written him was irritable and stressed rather than the season one 'let the weak die' personality he seemed to have.

Sword On Fire: Thx for the review, glad you like and sorry about the conversation being slightly off, it's always been a problem.

samcarter2: Thx for all six reviews, I wish you the best of luck with your fics and will hopefully get around to reading them

* * *

><p>"Exiting F T Ellllllll... Now." Brody shouted.<p>

"Dialing the gate." The wormhole burst open and stabilised as the crew prepared for what would be the fastest supply run in the history of the ship.

"OK people! We have just a few hours so let's move!" Greer shouted.

As the gate room emptied Col. Young pulled Rush to one side.

"I thought you said ten hours?" He accused.

"I did. And it was what I believed until Dr. Park pointed out a few factors I'd missed."

"Would you mind telling me what these few factors are which lost us over half our time?" Young demanded, the already desperate gamble having apparently turned into a fiasco within a minute of arriving.

"I was right about it being ten hours until the gravitational stresses damaged the ship. I just... overlooked that we'd be dead by then."

To Rush's surprise Young actually laughed. "Only _you_ could make that mistake."

Rush's reply was to simply walk through the wormhole.

* * *

><p>"For God's sake Fisher! How many times have we done this? You don't just grab a fruit and eat it!" Ramirez shouted. "First rub some on your skin. If there's a rash chuck it. Put some in your mouth don't swallow and wait a few minutes, no reaction you chew. Still no reaction after five minutes then swallow it. Wait fifteen. No ill-effects then take a proper bite. No reaction after another quarter of an hour we start stockpiling. And even then we might have to get rid of it later. Remember?"<p>

"We don't have time for all that. Three hours remember?" Fisher pointed out.

"I give up. If that stuff kills you I'm not taking the rap."

"Whatever." Fisher loudly took another bite of the fruit. The taste reminded him of almonds albeit with a bitterness to it.

* * *

><p>"I'm assuming you wanted me off the ship for more than a breath of fresh air." The almost-a-question hung in the air.<p>

"I'm sorry Colonel but the walls have ears. Pretty literally in this case."

"So what really happened to Scott?"

"There wasn't enough power to run all the pods Colonel. Destiny didn't have a choice."

"I see and why didn't you and Eli spot this problem?" Young demanded, his voice the unnatural calm of a man who's patience is on the edge of a knife.

"The repaired pods were leaking power where the repairs were a bit slap-dash, just a few extra kilovolts to bridge the gaps. But for two years and with that many pods. Well... it adds up Colonel. The only reason any of us made it is because of Destiny." Rush justified desperately.

"You're saying the ship saved us?" Young asked incredulously.

"Undoubtably. Lt. Scott's death was unfortunate but if Destiny hadn't shut down a pod we'd have run out of power and died. I can't say Destiny did the right thing picking him but it _had _to pick one of us." Rush defended the ship's actions. "Who would you have picked? Lt. Greer? Chloe? Camille? Me? One of us had to die; the only real question is why the ship picked Lt. Scott. And we will never know."

Young sighed deeply, his anger now pointless. "So what do we tell the crew?"

"Nothing. It would be best for everyone if Scott's death remained a tragic malfunction."

"So we just lie?" Young asked, already resigned to it but still trying to cling onto morals which didn't seem to apply any more.

"Pretty much yes."

* * *

><p>Fisher had been struggling for two hours now, a slight difficulty breathing and mild nausea. That is until the pain really hit.<p>

"Oh god." he whispered before collapsing to the ground clutching his chest.

"TJ! We need help over here!" Ramirez shouted, waving in the direction of the main group.

It took twenty seconds for Lt. Johansen to grab her kit and get to Fisher. By that time he'd stopped breathing, his lips turning blue and his skin an unhealthy pink.

It was five minutes later that TJ stopped the CPR to declare him dead.

* * *

><p>Author's Note: Four chapters in a week, admittedly two of them are a bit shabbier than I'd like but they're passable for now. I'm planning for the next seven weeks to write chapters for seven days then just upload the lot of them at once. Now up: A new chapter of HAMFisted, A SGU chapter (obviously), my new alien fic – at long last – and the beginning of the final part of my Night World trilogy.<p>

Author's Note: Thankyou samcarter2 for pointing out that - yet again - the upload deleted the scene breaks

.


	8. Normality

Author's Note: OK, I am actually overdue to dump all my chapters but I'm going to finish this, with that in mind this chapter may seem rushed. Sorry in advance.

Now for the review reviewing (Yay!)

aznblackhowling: Thanks for the review, I just felt it needed doing.

:Thx for the review, Greer is very much the career soldier and you actually need quite a lot in education these days to go far in the army.

Sapar: Thx for so many reviews, No problem and sorry but Eli is still going to remain a mystery until I reach a point where I simply can't not reveal what happened to him

samcarter2: Thx for reviewing every chapter, and thanks for pointing out the transitions had been deleted again.

Dr. Phoenix: Thx for the review and I intend to.

PoorVash: Thx for the review but I'm not that good.

metalmodder: Thx for the review, glad you like the fic.

* * *

><p><p>

"How did he die?" Young asked.

"I can't say for certain but it looks like cyanide poisoning, and Ramirez says that he ate some fruit down on the planet, I'm having it tested now." TJ answered.

"So it was an accident?" He said incredulously.

"That's what it looks like."

Young sighed heavily, his age showing through. "Well that's something at least."

"When did you last sleep?"

Young didn't answer.

"You know as the medical officer I can relieve you of duty on health grounds?"

"Fine I get the hint."

* * *

><p><p>

"Well of course the crew is still reeling over Lt. Scott's death and Fisher's death isn't helping things, this is the largest loss of life we've had in months." Camille explained smoothly.

"Do you think the crew will recover?"Asked a member of the IOA, three years had changed things she didn't recognise half the people at this table anymore.

"Given time."

"Is there anything else you believe significant?"

"Well Col. Young and Rush have been unusually cooperative lately and I don't just mean Young's stopped exploding every time Rush puts people lives at risk, it's like they're both going out of their way not to antagonise one another."

"Thank you Miss Wray, that will be all."

* * *

><p><p>

"What is he doing?" Volkner asked curiously.

"I don't know but he hasn't looked up from that monitor once in the last three hours." Brody answered.

"It's got to be something big."

"What are you thinking? Everything? Unification?"

"You two do know I can hear you right?" Rush pointed out, still not looking up.

"Uh... no we didn't actually." Brody said sheepishly, "So what _are_ you working on?"

"Just a couple of calculations Eli left around."

"Three hours worth of calculations?"

"Yes, now isn't there something you two should be doing?"

They decided to take the hint.

* * *

><p><p>

Corporal Barnes watched the worlds pass by from the observation deck, like the rest of the crew she was eager to see her family again. Sadly it would be a week before she got a chance to use the communication stones, until then there was little to do but watch.

"Beautiful isn't it?" Chu interrupted her reverie.

"Not really." She said, not unkindly.

"I think it is. Just think about it, we're doing the impossible by just being on this ship. We're travelling faster than light, the largest tachyon in history. It should be impossible, but we're doing it."

"I would expect a statement like that from one of the scientists."

"I'm not as dumb as I look."

"Perhaps."

They faded to silence, just watching the universe go by.

* * *

><p><p>

"Ma'am. I'm General Telford, I worked with Lt. Scott. I'm afraid I have some bad news." As the women burst into tears Telford found himself wishing he could be anywhere else, he was so tired of having to do this each time a member of Destiny died. It almost made him nostalgic for the ship.

* * *

><p><p>

Becker was hard at work in the canteen, as the unofficial chef, while in many ways it was a demotion Becker enjoyed the fact noone was shooting at him any more.

With all the new food he calculated it would be another month until the Destiny needed to make another such stop, admittedly that included the tins they'd collected which as he was in charge of rationing he was loathe to use unless absolutely nessecary. He decided he'd suggest two weeks, preferrably with a longer stop to gather supplies this time.

It was normality, of a sort.

* * *

><p><p>

Author's Note: I am so sorry it's so short but this was essentially a filler chapter, just to reeastablish normality and that the original crisis is over, however I do hope it at least reaches the quality needed if not the quantity.


	9. The Greatest Scientist He's Ever Known

Author's Note: Positive response as usual, and as per standard these past few weeks I'm writing this at the very last minute before my weekly upload. Also mildly distracted by the moth that keeps walking across my computer screen. Had real trouble coming up with plot for this one as the last few chapters simply haven't had enough happen to count as an episode so I can't move the plot on. On the bright side providing I don't back myself into another metaphorical corner I should start the next episode next chapter.

Now for the bit you probably haven't been waiting for. The review reviewing.

samcarter2: Thx for all eight reviews, and the positive response. It's nice to know someone actually does like the stuff I write.

Adam: Thx for the review, and as I keep saying, I can't reveal Eli's fate yet, maybe in another... ten chapters?

metalmodder: Thx for another review, glad it's getting better both in terms of quality and length. Should hopefully reach two thousand words per chapter by chapter thirteen.

Save sgu love 4m the uk: Thx for the review... I think.

And now, the chapter.

* * *

><p>"Dr. Rush please explain why we've dropped out of FTL?" Young asked politely, although you didn't need to be a quantum physicist to see the frustration boiling beneath the surface.<p>

Tiredly Rush fumbled for the radio, it had been the first glimpse of sleep he'd had in three days.

"Please tell me that your joking Colonel?" He said gruffly.

"No this is not a bloody joke, get to the control room now."

"With all due respect Colonel I'm in no fit condition to work at the moment. Tell Brody and Volker to do it, and don't tell them I said this but only accept the third solution they offer, they should have ironed out the errors by then. Also... yes that should work, assign Dr. Park to work with them, it isn't her speciality but she has proven insightful."

"And if there's an emergency?" The Colonel inquired, surprised that, no matter how tired, Rush would delegate anything involving the fate of his beloved ship.

"The way I'm feeling right now Colonel, they can plow the ship into a black hole for all I care as long as it doesn't wake me. Rush out."

* * *

><p>"Rush <em>actually <em>said that?" Brody said incredulously.

"Yes."

"_Rush_ actually said that?" Brody repeated.

"Yes, now please get to work Mr Brody, Volker and Park should be joining you shortly."

As Young walked off he could just hear Brody muttering under his breath. "One of the smartest men he's ever known, who'd have thought it."

* * *

><p>"Is noone else concerned with how chummy Young and Rush are these days?" Camille demanded to a general chorus of "no" throughout the canteen.<p>

"I'm serious! When was the last time they even argued?" For some reason this failed to get the expected response.

After a brief silence Lt. Greer took it upon himself to explain.

"You see Ma'am some of us actually prefer it when they aren't at each others throats, most of the crew are glad they've stopped fighting, for example I don't have to worry about a mutiny any more."

"It's just not normal that's the problem."

Seeing that she was still only the only one concerned about this she stormed out of the canteen, there was a general shrug as everyone turned they're attention back to the food.

"Do you want the bad news first, or the even worse news?" Brody remarked blithely, the other two scientists standing behind him in a show of solidarity.

"I'll take the bad news."

"Well Colonel the reason we've dropped out of FTL is to refuel at a star."

"But we've almost got a full energy supply."

"That isn't the problem, Destiny isn't just going to fill the collectors, it's going to fill the ship with plasma."

"What?" Young exclaimed. "Why?"

"That's the worse news. Destiny needs the extra power."

"What on Earth for?"

Brody opened his mouth to speak but somehow he just couldn't get the words out, his eyes wide with terror. Finally Volker spoke for him.

"Because Destiny is going to fly us into a black hole."

* * *

><p>Author's Note: I know it's short but I think that wraps up the second episode. Cliffhangers ftw!<p>

Author's Note 2: And thanks to metalmodder for pointing out that once again the useless chunk of metal I refer to as a computer deleted the scene breaks.


	10. A Postage Stamp

Author's Note: Ok, writing the chapter somewhat earlier than usual. Now the review reviews.

metalmodder: Thanks for the review. Glad you like it, I actually only realised what I'd done when you reviewed, thanks for pointing out my useless excuse for a computer has deleted the scene breaks, again.

xCloneECKO: Thanks for the review, still not spilling the beans on Eli. And thanks for the tip.

Sciencefictionsquirrell: Thanks for the review, explanation this chapter.

AlexanderD: Thx for the review, let's just say I've already taken all of that into account

Sapar: Thx for all the reviews, already explained it to you

samcarter2: Thx for reviewing every chapter, updating every Thursday

Johnny Bravo J: Thanks for the review

flux: Thanks for the review, and sorry but I already have that part of the plot worked out

And now the chapter.

* * *

><p>"Would someone please tell me why the fuck this goddamn ship has set us on a bloody collision course?" Col. Young exclaimed furiously.<p>

"We don't know." Park and Brody replied, voices slightly raised.

"Not a clue." said Volker, "But Rush would know."

"Dr. Rush has requested he be left alone. Can we deal with this without him?" Young asked.

The general consensus was a no.

Sighing deeply Young picked up his radio.

"Dr Rush. I'm sorry to wake you but we need you in the control room. Urgently!"

No reply.

"Lt. Greer. Wake up Rush and get him to the control room, I don't care how much he complains just get him up here."

"Right away sir." Greer replied, a little too eagerly. It was just possible to here the sound of his feet hitting the metal of the corridors over the radio.

* * *

><p>"You're sure?" Young asked, as though repeating the question would somehow change the answer.<p>

"Completely, nothing is working. I've even given adrenaline and that hasn't woken him up!" TJ replied calmingly.

The two were in the infirmary, hovering over Rush's sleeping body, the grouchy old scientist hadn't woken even while being carried here, none too gently, by Greer.

"So Destiny's on a collision course with becoming the size of a postage stamp and the only man who may have been able to stop it is for all extents and purposes comatose? Sometimes I think this ship hates us. So what are we left with? Come on think people!" Young demanded.

"Well Destiny has already dealt with the plasma for us, it's selected a few sections to put everything to avoid it being incinerated. Providing we stay in those sections we're not going to be vaporised." Brody chipped in.

"And the black hole? Anyone?" Young asked to a silent audience until Dr. Park finally spoke.

"Chloe might have an idea."

* * *

><p>"Chloe?" Young asked softly, entering her room. It was pitch black. "Chloe we need your help with something? Do you feel up to it?"<p>

No answer, Lt. Scott's death had hit her hardest amongst the crew, since then she hadn't left her room once, her meals had to be brought to her and she had barely spoken a word, throwing out anyone who had tried to get close enough to help.

"Chloe?"

"What do you want?" complained an irritated voice in the darkness.

"We need your help Chloe. You're the only one who might be able to save us." It sounded cliched even to him.

"Why can't Rush do it?" She demanded furiously.

"Dr. Rush is currently in a coma."

"So I'm the last resort am I?" she said bitterly.

"Not the way you're implying, you've made it quite clear you don't want to be disturbed but we have no choice. We need you Chloe."

"Fine."

* * *

><p>"Well the good news is we'll probably survive it." Was Chloe's none too reassuring assessment.<p>

"Impossible!" Scientists in the crowd began shouting.

"How?"

"Nonsense!"

Eventually the shouting died down. With mild assistance from Lt. Greer.

"There seems to be some disagreement amongst the scientists as to your findings Chloe, can you explain to them while I deal with a few things." Young asked, leaving in a mild hurry as the scientists erupted into argument once more, with phrases like "It's suicide." and "We're as good as dead." being tossed around.

Once the furore had died down, courtesy of Greer again. Chloe began her explanation.

"Look it's perfectly safe, the shield should maintain normal gravity within the ship, it's the only reason we don't get torn apart every time we use the FTL drive, we'll enter at FTL and we'll leave via FTL so no worries about escaping either, the only real danger is the time dilation. If what I'm seeing is correct then the computer and sensors will need a minimum of an hour of their own relative time. Which providing the power doesn't run out will be about a day for us. There will be mild time dilations around the ship but they can be monitored from the control room so everyone stay close to a radio."

What could possibly go wrong?

* * *

><p>Author's Note: And that's a wrap, possibly a bit too sciency but I felt it was needed to reestablish Chloe as a character – really had forgotten about her, thanks xCloneECKO. Next update on Thursday as always. Also if there are any spyro fans then please review my new fic Skylanders: Spyro's Adven- OH MY GOD WHAT IS IT? Protesting the changes in the new game, such as Spyro now looks like a troll with it's head smashed in.<p>

Author's Note 2: Ok, minor revisions, still not good but hopefully it's tolerable


	11. Practically Zen

Author's Note: This SGU post is likely a week overdue, sorry about that. But with the failure which was the original version of the last chapter I had to do something of a rewrite. Admittedly a very small rewrite – I couldn't think of much. Hopefully this one will be rather more up to standard.

Now the usual reviewing of the reviews. Again I am so sorry about the last chapter.

: Thanks for the review but please stop trying to write the plot for me. Also as a minor point the three laws of robotics are a load of complete bollocks.

metalmodder: Thanks for the review and thanks for the advice, although I simply couldn't incorporate it into the rewrite. As for Rush... well I would have thought by now you'd know that it's all in the reveal. Personally I felt Chloe's initial reintroduction went quite well, the only problem was tying it into the plot I'd already set out, as you pointed out I floundered somewhat.

samcarter2: Thanks for the review, sorry if the explanation seemed lacking but Chloe was explaining to scientists with a lot of knowledge on the problem so I had to gloss over a lot of what I would have put, on the bright side she's going to have to explain it to Young at some point. I always like writing the sciency bits so it's going to be fun.

xCloneECKO: Thanks for the review and your advice has helped a lot.

buttonmashez2: Thanks for the review although in this case the compliment is rather undeserved.

fielding: Thanks for the review, and I believe it's rather tragic Syfy killed SGU.

* * *

><p>"How long until we reach the star?" Young asked, watching over Chloe's shoulder with mild trepidation.<p>

"Ten minutes. Don't worry we've cleared out all the areas that will be filled with plasma, the dangerous part is afterwards." Chloe said calmly, looking over her calculations one last time. Across the room Volker and Brody were doing the same, so far no mistakes.

"I assume you don't need me hovering over you all like this at the moment?" Young asked, already suspecting the answer.

"If you wouldn't mind Colonel." Chloe answered, not looking up.

"No problem, I need to check up on Rush anyway." Heading for the door he almost walked right into Boone.

"Col. Young!" He panted, having to hold his knees to avoid collapsing.

"What is it, Dr. Boone?" Young asked patiently.

"I was checking the... data banks and I found... I found why... why..." He paused, struggling for breath

"Take your time Doctor." Young said, not unkindly. Nodding he took a minute to catch his breath.

"I've found something about why Destiny is doing this."

"Go on."

"Well, even forms of radiation are unable to escape the event horizon, except one."

"Hawking radiation."

"Yes sir, how...?"

"I did a little research after Volker told me what was going on."

"Yes well, anyway, Hawking radiation isn't uniform, which means that contrary to the standard model the matter composing a black hole is not all the same. This means that although compressed immensely it would presumably be possible to calculate what a black hole has absorbed. I don't know why Destiny wants to find that out but that's why it's doing it. It's going to map a black hole."

"Thank you Boones, just one question. Why didn't you use a radio to tell me this rather than sprint through half the ship?"

"It just... didn't occur to me sir."

* * *

><p>"So any ideas?"<p>

"None, we're just going to have to wait for him to wake up." Lt. Johansen replied, both of her and Young watching Rush's comatose body as though they expected him to just sit up and shout fooled you.

"We need him awake."

"Your gut telling you something's wrong?" TJ inquired.

"Not in so many words, it's just it's always been him and Eli who had the answers." Young sighed. "I know Brody and Volker are good, and I know Chloe is Rush-grade smart but it just feels... unsafe not having them around to sort things out."

"I see." she said obliquely, "Having to put your trust in Rush was hard enough, now that he's unavailable you're having to go through the whole 'which scientist to rely on' thing all over again. It's normal, you're just out of your comfort zone that's all."

Young chuckled, "You never said you were a qualified shrink as well as a medic."

"I'm not... I just know you that's all, trust was never an easy thing for you."

* * *

><p>Young was hovering over Chloe's shoulder again, frowning heavily. Brody, Boones, Park – accompanied by Lt. Greer, Morrison and Volker were all sitting at different stations in the control room, preparing to monitor any time dilations that might occur throughout the ship.<p>

"Run why this isn't suicidally insane by me again." Young sadi conversationally.

"You're familiar with relativity I assume Colonel?"

"Of course, energy equals matter times the speed of light squared."

"Yes well relativity states that any object with physical mass would gain an infinite mass as it approaches lightspeed, because of this you would need an infinite amount of energy. Now experiments on Earth have managed to get a few subatomic particles to go faster than light, I believe the record is 1.3 C, now to bypass this Destiny instead accelerates it's shield to faster than light which as it consists of just energy is possible to do. Everything inside the shield not only gets carried along for the ride but also continues to experience Earth normal conditions, including time. Now a black hole also effects gravity which in turn influences time. Now a second to you will always be a second but for someone in a different time dilation your second could take a minute, an hour or who knows how long but as long as the shield holds these changes should be minor."

"So basically being in a black hole is like being in FTL?"

"Essentially Colonel." Chloe turned back to her screen. "Uh... Colonel?"

"Yes Chloe?"

"You might want to strap yourself in, this could get somewhat bumpy."

* * *

><p>Author's Note: Well I think it's a better chapter at least and for all the real science nuts out there, Yes I do know the explanation of Hawking's information paradox is wrong, I have a reason for doing so.<p>

And despite my earlier predictions the chapter is only a day late.


	12. Relatively Speaking

Author's Note: Well a positive response once more I'd like to give thanks to my two most reliable reviewers, samcarter2 and metalmodder, in fact the only people to review the last chapter. Thankyou you both.

It's going to be two weeks until the next update to allow me to put up chapters on nearly all active fics, make some serious headway on both my rewrites, polish up HAMFisted – the earliest chapters are a bit shoddy for the moment. Also _if_ I manage all that then also three new fics are on the way. Consider a last hurrah of sorts as after that I simply won't have the enough time for regular updates.

And now the chapter... You are all so going to hate me for this. I give you Episode Four!

* * *

><p>Dr. Nicholas Rush bolted upright, his face a silent, screaming rictus of terror as consciousness claimed him once more.<p>

"What the-?" Regaining himself he put his head in his hands, breathing heavily as the adrenaline began to leave him.

Still mildly caught up in his nightmare he only now noticed he was in the infirmary.

"Lieutenant? Lieutenant Johansen?" He inquired of the darkness.

Getting up off of the bed he pulled the IV line from his arm and disconnected himself from both EEG and pulse oximeter. "Lt. Johansen?" He asked again as he walked unsteadily towards the infirmary's main console. Turning it on the screen flickered briefly before the console died with a deepening hum until the room went silent as even the Earth equipment faded and died. The only sounds Rush's shallow breathing and steady staccato heartbeat.

Sighing he knelt down and popped open the panel. Taking out a small pocket torch he began to look through the circuitry for the error. It was only a couple of seconds later that the lights died, Rush's torch now a tiny pinprick of light in the darkness.

"This just keeps getting better and better."

Working from memory he aimed for the door only to swear vehemently as he tripped over something unidentifiable in the darkness.

Finally reaching the door he hit the switch, which did nothing.

"Damn it!" He screamed, punching the door before sitting against it, head in his hands. Given time someone would presumably remember he was here and open the door.

"I wouldn't expect you to give up quite so easily." said a youthful voice in the darkness.

"Eli?"

There was a familiar chuckle. "The one and only."

"Well how am I supposed to get out? The override's the other side of the door."

"You aren't I just thought you'd try a few things first. Try and rewire the door, maybe try and use your torch to power the switch long enough to open it far enough to squeeze through."

"None of which could possibly work."

"Still I expected more."

"So how did you plan to get out?"

"Let's just say I've a friend on the inside." Eli grinned.

"How long until this friend of yours opens the doors?"

Eli looked down at his watch. "Any second."

Sure enough the doors opened about a foot before the power failed again.

With some difficulty they both squeezed through the gap.

"So what's happening?"

"I think it best he explains it to you."

"So where to?" Rush said as the ship shook slightly and the lights flickered.

"The Bridge." With surprising gusto Eli broke into a jog.

* * *

><p>"What happened here?" Rush asked, his tone a mixture of horror and awe.<p>

Most of the consoles were burnt out wrecks, skeletal forms littered the floor and in the command chair was a uniformed skeleton with about three metres worth of metal pipe having gone straight through the chest cavity, through the chair and finally deep into the floor. The name tag read 'Young'.

"You took your time Mr Wallace." came the familiar tones of Dr. Franklin.

"Franklin? Didn't I turn you off?"

"And Dr. Rush, as charming as ever. I would love to chat but unfortunately I've only got five minutes to explain this in."

"Why only five minutes?" Rush asked.

"Because that is when the ship will explode. Now when you wake up you will want to go straight to the door and open it immediately while you still have power, if you need to grab anything then do it fast because after two minutes I will lockdown that section to conserve power. Head straight to the control room and grab a full set of diagnostic tools."

"And then what?" Rush asked impatiently.

"I don't know, the ship's internal sensors are damaged, you must diagnose the problem and attempt to repair the ship. Remember be quick, and our time is up. Goodbye Dr. Rush."

"Hang on you said five minutes."

"It has been five minutes."

"No it bloody well hasn't." Rush yelled as the floor beneath him ruptured, filling the room with plasma within a second.

* * *

><p>Author's Note: Well what do you know, just as I went to upload I got another review.<p>

Thanks for the review Dennis Atkins, and as much as I appreciate the compliment I'm afraid this isn't quite book quality stuff.


	13. Could You Repeat That Please?

Author's Note: As always this chapter has been written at the very last minute, the chapter extravaganza has just managed to be written with six chapter ready for upload instead of the usual three. As always thankyou for the positive response and may I just say that some of you are annoyingly perceptive.

Now for the review reviewing.

samcarter2: Thanks for the review, consider yourself one of the perceptive people mentioned above.

metalmodder: Thanks for the review, glad I'm meeting your expectations if just in terms of cheap stunts pulled.

I have a dictionary here: Thanks for the review, I wish the chapters were long as well but glad you like it so far.

Greeksandlies: Thx for the review, will do.

Bashalinge: Refer to Greeksandlies comment.

William Edwards: Thanks for the review but I'm not that good. If there was an author scale for ff then I'm probably in the middle.

Stu29: Refer to Bashalinge comment.

Urdone969: Refer to Stu29 comment

Wow, most reviews ever for one chapter, speaking of which here's the next one:

* * *

><p><p>

Dr. Nicholas Rush bolted upright, his face a silent, screaming rictus of terror as consciousness claimed him once more.

"What the-?" Regaining himself he put his head in his hands, breathing heavily as the adrenaline began to leave him.

Still mildly caught up in his nightmare he only now noticed he was in the infirmary.

And then his memory caught up with his mind. Leaping from the bed he grabbed a torch, a much larger one this time, and a touchpad to interface with the computers. He was out of the room in less than a minute, the lights were on this time although as soon as he passed the door it slammed shut far faster than Rush remembered it being capable of.

Breaking into a jog Rush set out for the control room.

* * *

><p><p>

Rush stopped and stared down the corridor. About five metres ahead of him, Lt. Greer was in midair, legs outstretched, like a photograph of a sprinter. A glimmer of colour on the otherwise grey and steely walls caught his eye.

Someone had been writing on the walls in what was either one of Chloe's few tubes of lipstick or blood.

Time distortion: 0.00178 (Fatal), and next to it, Time distortion: 560 (Fatal). Deciding to take the advice Rush turned around in search of another route to the control room.

* * *

><p><p>

Nine reroutes, and half an hour, later, Rush finally reached the control room. Eli was already there.

"You took your time." He said, not looking up.

"I had to avoid the warning signs."

"Ah, Greer landed yet?" Eli asked, tapping away at his console.

"No, now tell me what the hell is going on?" Rush demanded as he looked at what was apparently gibberish on his own console.

"We're stuck in a time loop, sort of. From what I've been able to gather from the data core, Destiny was attempting to map a black hole when one of the FTL drives flared up and overloaded, taking out the shield. Which should have killed us outright but with the FTL active we were technically moving faster than light and without shields we were unprotected from the the associated temporal anomalies which -"

"Caused us to go back in time, just not far enough to escape the black hole, which means due to the distortions created by the black hole the loop isn't uniform. Some things get carried across each time and some are still going through their first loop. Is that a rough summary?"

"Bit worse than that."

"Worse? How could it be worse?" Rush yelled.

"Take a look for yourself." Eli commented, moving aside so Rush could have a better look at the map he'd just pulled up on the screen.

Rush only needed a glance, "That's impossible."

"Apparently not, the time distortion's causing the explosion to slowly consume the corridors, if you look here, here and here, you'll see areas where the time loop has reset since the explosion reached it and which the explosion is moving back into."

"Explosion?" Rush asked.

"Yeah, I guess I forgot to mention that..." Eli looked sheepish. "It was caused by the FTL's overload. So far we've been able to use the doors to give it the runaround but..."

"But you can't completely shut it off from the rest of the ship without the pressure becoming too much for the doors." Rush finished again. "So what can we do?"

"Well if I'm seeing this correctly we need to isolate the explosion from the FTL and repair the drive to stop the loop, problem is if we do that without the shields back up, time will revert to equal throughout the ship and we'll be crushed. Unfortunately if we fix the shield without stopping the loop then the repairs will be undone during the next loop." Eli explained.

"What do you need me to do?" Rush said, letting Eli take the lead.

"That's the problem, I just can't think of a way to get around that. It's why I got the AI to seek you out a few resets ago, I need a fresh set of eyes."

"What's that?" Rush inquired, pointing the a flashing icon on the screen.

"Distortion shift, without the shields some of the time shifts keep changing."

"You know what Eli? I may have an idea..."

* * *

><p><p>

Author's Note: I'm sorry the upload wasn't as large as advertised, I tried but had writer's block for a whole week. This is the last large upload you'll get from me 'til around Christmas but I will try and get a chapter up every Thursday, it won't always be SGU but it will be one of my most popular fics.


	14. What Goes Around

Author's Note: Well here's the chapter you've all been waiting for, sorry for the wait but I simply haven't had time and although I try to get one chapter of at least one fic up a week sometimes – like last week – it simply isn't possible.

Going to have to skip the reviews this time, sorry but I simply haven't the time.

Please review... I'm almost at the 100 review landmark and I'm getting so desperate I'm on the verge of submitting my own anonymous reviews (only joking, I'm not quite that pitiful but the point still stands)

* * *

><p><p>

"For the record this plan, is; _insane._" Eli stated as he programmed the surviving maintenance robot, apparently the other had been destroyed by the explosion months ago.

"Not chickening out are we Eli?" Rush chuckled from behind him, as he continued to tap away at the console. "According to this -" There was a pause as Rush looked down at the modified data pad, a large number of it's circuitry exposed where Eli had soldered on a few extra components which he'd cannibalised from parts of Destiny's FTL modulator. "What are you actually going to call this thing?"

"Ted." Eli said after a while.

"Ted?" Rush was incredulous.

"Time-field extrapolation device." Eli explained as he got to his feet, wiping the dust from his knees as he finished rewiring the robot, tapping a few final commands into it's access panel before letting it trundle off into the ship.

"Well it's your device." Rush said simply, "Anyway, as I was saying, according to _Ted _there's a ribbon of near concurrent timefields running through these three corridors." He tapped the corridors on the screen for emphasis. Now if you look here, here and here, you've got time distortions that are running at a millionth of normal time. They're containing the explosion for now and should do so for another couple of years providing we don't spend too long in a slow distortion ourselves, but once they hit this corridor." The finger trailed across the map indicating one of the main corridors. "it'll cut the ship in half. From that point onwards we'll be stuck in one half of the ship as each reset the explosion will just refill it. So that's our deadline."

"Still waiting for this wonderful plan of yours." Eli remarked.

"We use the variances, if you look here the changes occur at the same time Destiny's power spikes. Now the change is always the same direction in any particular shift, now if we overlay the reset times with the distortions you'll see a direct path to the shield generators with hours to spare in all directions, then if we set Destiny's powercells to give off oscillating bursts this happens, a similar path to the FTL drive which has also been cut off from the explosion by the time shifts. Again hours of safety margin on the repairs. With the shields protecting from external time dilation and the FTL no longer causing internal dilation we should be able to just fly the ship out." Rush explained, a brief period on the lecture circuit having left it's mark.

Eli grinned, "Let's do it."

"How long have we got?" Rush asked as he reconnected the last of the circuitry before getting to work on the coding.

"Just under two hours." Eli replied, tapping at the screen. "We're cutting it fine."

"Almost done Eli. Just tell me if the dilations change." Rush said.

After another five minutes Rush stepped back from the console.

"Ok, begin the energy spikes."

They set off at a run through the corridors.

The two stood up from the FTL drive, the repairs finished.

Rush grinned his trademark 'not quite a scowl' "How long until time returns to-"

Dr. Nicholas Rush bolted upright, his face a silent, screaming rictus of terror as consciousness claimed him once more.

"What the-?"

Author's Note: And that's where I'll have to end it, sorry it's been so long since I updated but I'm afraid you can all expect even longer until the next update, A levels are just too much of a workload to write at the same time. So I probably won't update again until Christmas. Also sorry that it's so short. But I promise I'll get the average words back above 1000 words per chapter with the next update.


	15. An Infinite Number of Monkeys

Author's Note: I can only apologise for how long it's been, A-levels are very lacking in terms of free time, on the bright side I'm only four reviews away from the big one double zero.

So many reviews for the last chapter it would take the best part of a thousand words to answer them all, to be honest if the response to every chapter is this size then my days of review answering are over.

Anyway, here's the chapter, I hope it seems worth the wait.

* * *

><p>"What the-?"<p>

Dr Nicholas Rush woke from the infirmary, again. They were running out of time, only a week left until the Destiny was completely beyond recovery, roughly another fourteen cycles.

He met Eli at the FTL drives, the device currently in a state of repair, at least for the next five hours, at which point a raging inferno would roar through the corridor, rendering all of their work useless once again.

For some reason, despite having fixed both shields and FTL, the ship was still stuck in it's time loop and the two were starting to get desperate.

"What if we rig the shuttle with one of the FTL drives? We might make it before we're crushed." Eli asked.

"Not a bloody chance. It's take a month to pull off that sort of retrofit, and that's with a team of engineers. Even if it worked we wouldn't have a clue where the nearest survivable planet is." Rush shot the idea down.

"If we retrieve the data from the..."

"Oh give it up Eli!" Rush shouted, snapping. "We're as good as dead."

Eli sighed heavily, "I never thought I'd see the day you'd give up on this ship."

"Right now I'd settle for a way to stay alive." Rush lamented.

"Likewise." Eli sighed again, sounding old before his time. "I can't believe I woke up from stasis just to walk into this mess."

Rush's head jolted up. "What did you say?" He demanded.

"I was just agreeing with you. No need to bite my head off." Eli said defensively.

"No not that, the other bit."

"I was just saying what a waste it was to wake up from stasis just for this."

"That's the answer, stasis." Rush stood up, the excited gleam in his eyes that the Destiny crew had learned to dread.

"Come again?" Eli asked.

"We just have to project a stasis field around the ship, no time whatsoever. We just wait it out." Rush said excitedly.

"I'm seeing two problems with this," Eli pointed out, trying to sound reasonable. "One, the stasis field would have to contain itself which is impossible."

"Only in theory." Rush pointed out.

"And two, it could take billions to trillions of years for the black hole to dissipate."

"So?"

Eli sighed again. "Very well, let's give it a try. It's not as if I've got anything better."

* * *

><p>Rush was walking past the infirmary when something struck him as slightly odd, stopping he looked at the empty corridor, unable to put his finger on it.<p>

"Dr Rush." said an almost-familiar voice.

Rush turned.

"Lt. Greer. This is brilliant."

"But that as it may, would you care to explain to me what's going on?" Greer asked, slightly confrontational, never fully trusting Rush at the best of times.

"I'll tell you on the way, right now we need someone with your skillset, Lieutenant."

* * *

><p>"My skillset..." Greer grumbled, sweat dripping from his forehead as he struggled to lift the power cells Rush had given him.<p>

Just down the corridor Rush was integrating the stasis pod with the FTL drives. It had taken far longer than the week they'd predicted. Fortunately they'd been able to partition a section of the corridor off from the rest using a projected stasis field.

"Here's the cells, Rush." Greer said, carefully setting them down and promptly collapsing against a wall, breathing heavily.

"Thank you Lieutenant." Rush picked up his radio, "Eli, are you in position?"

"Yeah Rush, just give the word." Eli replied, his voice heavily muffled by static.

"Ok..." Rush connected up the powercells. "On my mark. Three. Two. One. Mark." Rush tapped on his tablet.

* * *

><p>Dr. Nicholas Rush bolted upright, his face a silent, screaming rictus of terror as consciousness claimed him once more.<p>

"What the-?"

"It's alright Rush. Just lie back down." TJ said calmly, gently placing a hand on his chest and pushing him back down, in his hunger-weak state Rush couldn't give much resistance.

The ECG next to Rush was beeping away loudly though steadily, usually the sound was annoying but Rush found it strangely reassuring.

"How are you? I mean? Did Eli-?"

TJ looked briefly confused, "Look Doctor, just stay there and gather your thoughts. You can expect mild disorientation for a few hours at the very least." TJ turned on her radio. "Colonel, it's TJ, it's Dr. Rush, he's awake."

About two hours later Rush walked onto the observation deck.

"So what did I miss, Colonel?" He asked with his usual lack of deference to rank.

"Oh fine, other than the whole flying through a black hole thing."

"Yes, very funny, mock the coma victim." Rush stated sarcastically.

"No really. This bloody ship of yours decided to pilot itself through a black hole." Young snapped, no malice in it, just irritation.

"You are joking? Right?" Rush saw the Colonel's expression before he turned to stare out of the viewscreen as the galaxy floated past in neon blue, his own expression thoughtful.

This continued for a few minutes, just a few minutes free of crisis and catastrophe. Rush wondered if it was some kind of record.

"Penny for your thoughts?" Young asked.

"Oh, it's nothing Colonel, just absent minded ponderings."

"I'll leave you to your pondering then." Young turned and left, leaving Rush just staring, and staring.

Author's Note: Well I hope that was at least half of a surprise. And more to the point, worth the wait.

In other news, the epilogue for Shadow in the Mind is nearly finished and I'm hoping to make some progress on Colony 11094 and Losing My Mind before the holiday is out, though no promises on the last two.

Also most of the titles of my chapters are jokes, puns or obscure references, kudos to whoever spots them and feel free to include it in your reviews, consider it a competition of sorts, admittedly with no prize.

Thanks for reading, please review.


	16. Stargazing

Author's Note: One hundred and ten reviews! Thank you all. Really, thanks. After three years I've finally got a fic past the hundred review mark. As something of a bonus for my loyal readers, well done both of you (joke lol), I'll do my best to bulk this chapter up to 2000 words.

* * *

><p><p>

It was what roughly passed for a night-time on Destiny, one of the few signs of life was the small cluster of people in the infirmary.

"I guess we'll never know." Rush said thoughtfully, clearly bringing an end to a long discussion.

"You said Eli was with you, in this... whatever we're calling it?" Col. Young inquired, curiously.

"For the final time yes. But considering we don't even know if any of this actually happened then it can't be presumed to mean anything." Rush explained, patience wearing thin. "And no, before you ask, he didn't say where he'd been. Now can I please get out of here?"

"Lieutenant Johansen?" Young asked the medic, who'd been staying quiet near one of the computer terminals.

"Yes, Colonel?"

"Is it safe for Rush to get back to work?"

"It should be safe, I'd advise nothing remotely exerting, you were out for a while doctor, you'll be a bit weak for a couple of days."

"Avoid heavy lifting." Rush said dryly, "and to think I was looking forwards to it." He stood up, legs wobbling slightly as he compensated for the change in balance that the weaker muscles caused. He left at a slow walk.

As the doors closed behind Rush, Col. Young turned to TJ. "I take it back, that man is still an arsehole."

* * *

><p><p>

The corridors were crowded as Rush walked out of the infirmary, the crew busy putting everything back in the rooms that had been flooded with plasma in the recent excursion into the black hole.

Bumping into a couple of people along the way, Rush eventually made it to his quarters only to find them threadbare. His stuff still hoarded in the gate room with the rest of it.

"Brilliant, just brilliant." He grumbled to himself as he turned on the ball of a foot and went back the way they came.

* * *

><p><p>

The group of civilians would normally have had Greer on edge, talking quietly in the corner of the canteen. Lt. Greer was unconcerned though, he was one of the few members of the military in the group and could say with reasonable certainty that it was just harmless gossip.

Normally he'd have been sitting with the military side of the canteen, not an official designation just the way people tended to conglomerate, like interests seeking like interests, but Dr. Park had need help getting to the canteen and he was sitting next to her, ready to help her to the control room once the lunch period was over before returning to his duties.

"They're saying he might have saved the ship, again." claimed Dr. Inman

"Yeah right." scoffed Brody, "The one time we save the ship and he still tries to take the credit." Volker, a mouth full of food, only nodded in agreement.

"I heard he had one of those test dreams Col. Young had ages ago." chipped in Boon.

"He probably just made it all up to seem important." sniped Morrison, who to his annoyance received only a couple of minor jeers for his input.

"Yeah, Rush put himself in a coma so we'd think he was a hero. Great theory." Greer finally commented. "And when was the last time you heard Rush admit he didn't know something?"

"I'm serious Sarge- uh... Lieutenant, that man is unstable, it's just a matter of time till Rush gets us all killed!" Morrison claimed, voice raised slightly. The comment was met with a stony silence. "Come on. We've all thought it, it's not like he can punish us for it." The silence only got colder, everyone looking at everyone but him, except Greer who was grinning just slightly, eyes aimed at a point just past Morrison's ear.

"Actually I think I can." said an oh so incredibly calm voice behind him. "You know Morrison, I'm in charge of work detail for this month and I was absolutely delighted when you volunteered to manually check every circuit in the power relays over the next week." His bit said, Rush turned and left, taking his meal with him.

"Man that guy's an asshole."

"Two weeks!" came echoing from the still open door.

* * *

><p><p>

It was quiet amongst the stasis pods, with none of them on and noone close to them, Destiny had even shut down the lighting in the room, yet in the darkness a red light blinked,very slowly but getting steadily faster as a couple of sparks came off one of the escape pods. Destiny began to notice a minor power drain but it was well within acceptable parameters for fluctuations. The ancient AI dismissed it, the loss of power insignificant compared to it's reserves.

* * *

><p><p>

"Corporal. Airman" Rush said, his tone almost passing for jolly as he rested his arms on the banister, staring out of the huge window of the observation deck.

Barnes and Chu, turned to look at Rush, acknowledging his presence, before turning back to the window, just noticeable, if Rush had been paying attention, their hands lay atop one another on the banister.

Life went on. Or it stopped, and that was the way it always would be.

* * *

><p><p>

Author's Note: Ok, this is the end of this episode. The next chapter won't be part of the storyline, I'm planning something of a Christmas special, bit short of ideas at the moment so please submit a few in your reviews. Also there may be a Christmas special from my fic 'Blades of the Immortals', which admittedly only the eight people who have me on author alert will probably ever see.


	17. Christmas Special 2011 Pt 1

Author's Note: As promised here's the Christmas special, as always thanks for the reviews for the last chapter. Hope I don't let you all down with this.

Also as a minor note this chapter should not be viewed as part of the storyline nor is it in my usual style.

* * *

><p><p>

Rush wondered where they'd got the mistletoe from. Ok so it wasn't technically mistletoe but it was a close enough a facsimile that he was having to avoid the stuff. Including a small cluster of the waxy leaves which had been stuck above the door to his quarters.

In many ways it was good to see the crew relaxing, for one it meant they spent less time complaining. Now if he could only get rid of this cold.

Still Rush doubted there would be any surprises this year. Which was the point he walked into the hydroponics dome to find Chloe and Eli making out under the mistletoe.

* * *

><p><p>

Lt. Greer grinned as he opened one of his presents, admittedly there was nothing in the way of wrapping paper but they still had the original supply crates from when they'd arrived and said crates had been disappearing for about a month.

Greer smiled slightly as he remembered the original idea to use the crates had been his, he was pretty sure Col. Young still didn't know about their use although the colonel had had a slight glint in his eye for the last two weeks. And the gifts, while limited due to the lack of shops or similar methods of resource acquisition, weren't to be scoffed at.

Eli for example had made him a holographic sight that could easily be attached to pretty much any weapon in Destiny's armoury. The sight wasn't actually a hologram, it projected a holographic sight onto a thin sheet of glass, at a guess Greer would say the parts had been cannibalised from a kino, of which the Destiny appeared to have a near limitless supply.

All in all things were looking up, except for that one problem.

"Achooo!" The sheer volume of the sneeze was enough to get everyone in the canteen to look up. Grumbling slightly to himself Greer left, taking gifts and cold with him.

* * *

><p><p>

Dr. Rush was talking with Col. Young and TJ when Greer walked in.

"Do you think it's contagious?" Rush asked worriedly. It was odd to hear Rush worried about anything that didn't directly involve the ship, Greer examined that thought carefully, it said a lot that it was Rush worrying about something other than Destiny that seemed odd to him rather than the man's usual dispassion towards anything other than the ship. It was a form of habituation probably. Habituation? He'd been spending too long around the scientists.

"I'm not even sure it's an illness." Lt. Johanson replied calmly, not looking upon from the infirmary's computer console.

"You can't tell me something's not affecting them!" Rush exclaimed vehemently. "Eli just punched the colonel!"

It was only now that Lt. Greer noticed the two people strapped to the infirmary beds, Chloe and Eli, thrashing wildly against their bonds.

"I know there's something wrong, now let me figure out what!" TJ snapped. She looked up when she realised everyone was staring at her. "What?" She demanded.

"Nothing." said Rush, shaking his head, hand massaging his forehead until a sneeze caused him to get a finger in his eye. "Dammit!"

Greer gave Rush an almost sympathetic look. "You too?"

It was at this point two marines carried an unconscious Becker in.

"He just started attacked Morrison. No provocation or anything." One said in way of explanation.

"Well I think this settles the issue of contagion." Rush said with grim cheer in his voice.

* * *

><p><p>

Author's Note: Sorry it's late, sorry it's not the whole thing, I'll hopefully manage the rest by end of January, if not then, sorry, but it'll be left on a backburner until next Christmas. All I can say in my defence is that family plays hell with schedules.

In other news, usual stuff. Colony 11094 and this to get priority, various other stuff being worked on when I have time and inclination.


	18. Countdown

Author's Note: I'm sure you can all tell by the date that the rest of the Christmas special will have to wait until next Christmas. As with the last few fics posted, I blame exams.

Anyway on with the fic.

* * *

><p><p>

Destiny left FTL five hours ahead of schedule, it took everyone less than five minutes to get to their stations, admittedly with some collisions in the corridors.

On the bridge Col. Young waited patiently for Rush's assessment.

"The FTL drives have stopped working." was the expert assessment.

"We noticed." Young stated dryly. "Now what's wrong with them?"

Rush looked hesitant. "Well... I don't know."

All conversation stopped on the bridge, the silence awkward and tangible.

"Don't look at me like that, I'm not bloody omniscient!" Rush snapped. "Last time we had a problem with the FTL drives we had to bring in Amanda to sort it out, this time the computers won't even tell me what the error is."

"Then what are they saying?" Chloe asked, still grief stricken over Lt. Scott, it was one of the few times they'd managed to persuade her out of her room.

"That we're still in FTL."

"Let me see that." Chloe demanded, shouldering the cranky scientist aside and quickly tapping into the source code. There was a long pause as she read. "He's right. Which is impossible, I've seen the schematics for the onboard sensors, even the backups have backups."

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Rush asked as Chloe made room for him to access the console.

"That this isn't accidental?"

"Exactly." Rush tapped away at the console again before hitting the frame hard enough to bruise his hand. "Dammit!"

Chloe gently nudged Rush aside before looking puzzled. "That can't possibly be right."

"Can you two just spell it out for us, please?" Young demanded exasperatedly.

"According to the system report we're still in FTL, but if you look at the power report here," She tapped the screen, enlarging the image. "all that power is being diverted to the stasis pods. And it's not just FTL, artificial gravity is starting to be affected, as is the gate and kino replication."

"You said there's a chance this isn't a glitch?" Young asked Chloe, only for Rush to interrupt.

"Not a chance. Like Chloe said, even the backups have backups, whatever is doing this is intelligent and has put a lot of effort into covering it's tracks." Rush stated with complete certainty.

"Ok. Lieutenant. Assemble a team, go down to the stasis room and find out who the hell is doing this." Young ordered.

"Yes, sir." Lt. Greer replied, in an approximation of cheerfulness.

The colonel looked back at the console where Rush and Chloe were already back to arguing. He could already tell that it was just going to be one of those days.

* * *

><p><p>

Greer waved the rest of his group forwards while checking around the bend with a small rectangular hand mirror.

"Anything, sir?" Cpl. Lipton asked quietly.

"Nothing." Greer replied roughly. "But if the Doc's right then whatever is doing this is in this stasis room."

"Relying on Rush, there's a horrible thought."

"I'm with you there, Corporal, I'm with you there." Greer rumbled, stepping into the room. There was a surprising lack of killer robots or homicidal aliens rushing out to meet them.

The squad crept into the room, the five of them checking each stasis pod in turn. All empty.

"Nothing." Greer stated, almost doubtfully, despite his remaining dislike of the scientist even he accepted how rare it was for Rush to get something wrong. "Best check the adjoining stasis rooms just in case before we bring the scientists in."

And with that the four of them left. The doors closing with a near malevolent finality.

* * *

><p><p>

Author's Note: This will most likely be the last update I'll do until September, A-levels are simply leaving no time to write. So for 6 months this is the Lament, signing off.


	19. Delete!

Author's Note: Can't write much, but at this point I'm nearing the end of my exams however I'm going to be out of the country for a month so still no chance of a decent update schedule. Hence September's the dump date for what little I've managed. Hope I haven't taxed your patiences too much.

* * *

><p><p>

"I'm telling you there was nothing there!" Greer yelled, trying to shout down Rush.

"And I'm telling you there has to be!" Rush replied, shoving a datapad into the soldier's line of sight. "All this power is being diverted to the pods and... that's odd."

Rush yanked back the pad and called Chloe over. "Can you make sense of this?" He asked, "I mean I know what it looks like but... the potential difference would cause an overheat if I'm seeing this right."

Chloe tapped the screen. "Not if they ran it through in parallel, see the corridor here, something's running the current through it to spread the heat produced, also electrified the floor unfortunately."

"You two do know you haven't actually said what's wrong yet?" Lt. Greer pointed out, by now they were used to having to prompt the scientists.

"All the power is being diverted to a single pod now." Rush said in lieu of an answer, "Lieutenant I need you to go get Col. Young then find yourself an insulative layer for your boots, I need you to go back in there and this time I'm coming with you."

* * *

><p><p>

"Has anyone seen Lipton?" Lt. Greer asked, trying to get his squad back together.

The general consensus of the mess hall was "Not recently."

In fact it turned out noone had seen the corporal in two hours.

* * *

><p><p>

"If I ask you to cut the technobabble would that achieve anything?" Young asked drearily.

"It's quite simple, just follow the pattern here." Rush explains, indicating a section of the screen. "That's the power being diverted from FTL, nothing new there. But this..." He tapped another section. "is recent. That's the artificial gravity, note how it's only a ten percent drain, barely noticable, if I hadn't been looking, and here," Tap. "Lighting reduced twenty percent, and here," Tap. "The power for cooling the engines." Tap. "Engine power." Tap, "And here's the sinister bit, whatever it is is trying to hack it's way past the life-support safeties."

"Ok, I'm convinced. But where's it all going, we've checked the damn pods. Nothing." Young pointed out.

"Which is why I'll be going with Lt. Greer's men this time." Rush said simply. "Chloe can hold the fort here."

"Thanks." snarked Chloe.

* * *

><p><p>

The squad didn't quite making it to the stasis room, stopped instead by the shambling figure that had been Corporal Lipton.

"Help... me..." He sobbed, as his arm rose, P90 in hand as he opened fire. Fortunately not hitting anything as the squad all dived aside, cowering in doorways too small to hold them.

"Lipton, stand down!" Greer shouted as the corporal limped closer, passing into the direct path of one of the lights to reveal the gleaming metal plate now bolted to his skull.

"Help... me..." He begged, firing again, this time catching one of his erstwhile comrades in the arm.

With no choice Greer shot back on full auto, emptying ten shots into his chest. It barely knocked him back a step.

"Help... me..."

"Aim for the device on his skull." Rush suggested, trying to hack his way past the locked door that was both shelter and hindrance.

"Help..." The voice cut off as Greer followed the physicist's advice, the shots this time flooring the corporal.

Greer advanced quickly, kicking the gun out of reach as he now got an eyeful of what had been done to the young man.

Large amounts of skin had been replaced by metal plate, one eye was now a glowing red LED and there were thick wires threading out of the forearms into the wrists.

"H... h... hell... hel..." Lipton rasped, hand reaching to grab the lieutenant. Greer emptied the entire clip into his head. "H..." And then silence.

"Rush. I'm going to ask you a straight question, and if I don't get a straight answer I'm going to shoot you." Greer's voice was low and dangerous.

Rush shrugged, already kneeling over the corpse, not bothering to check for a pulse, instead trying to pry open the metal plate on the late Lipton's head.

"What could cause this?"

Rush gave it due thought. "I have no idea, but it clearly didn't want us to reach the pods. We're lucky it didn't wait longer to show it's hand or we'd probably have all been killed by the electrified floor while trying to avoid the good corporal."

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><p><p>

Author's Note: That's a wrap, as always please review. Sorry it's so short. Also, on a side-note, I am now writing for commission, anyone who's looking for a short story or similar custom written the drop me a message.


	20. Author's Note: Hiatus

Author's Note: My humblest and most sincere apologies. It was my hope to finish my Christmas special this year but alas it simply has not happened. In fact my overall performance over the last year has been worse than pathetic. Particularly where SGU is concerned, a mere two updates in a year.

Which is why, instead of a chapter I am putting up this, a note to tell you all that the fic is on a permanent hiatus until I have finished my education or until my writer's block takes a truly monumental shift. In the case of education this could take up to seven years and writer's block... well who knows. But the point is that it has been a pleasure to have a fic so well read and that it was always the highlight of my day when a review came in. Thank you, you have been a wonderful audience.


	21. And everyone in it merely players

Author's Note: Six weeks to university, and I finally have some time to write. Now when I started this fic I was achieving an update a week. And shall endeavour to do the same now. Though this may be spread across all my fics, not just this one. Sorry but the fees are ridiculous and I need to finish my actual book in this time as well.

Anyway, on with the fic.

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><p><p>

Lt. Greer advanced slowly into the stasis room, or what was the stasis room, the row of stasis pods had rather changed in the last hour.

Wiring ran everywhere, crisscrossing, whilst the the pods themselves had been ripped apart, the thick transparent screens now combined, and somehow sealed together, in the middle of the room to make a perfect cylinder. Green light dancing across the panel hooked up to it.

"What the hell is that?" Greer growled, gesturing with his assault rifle.

"I can't tell at a glance." Rush pointed out, kneeling down in front of the device, "But, just out of deduction, I'd say we're looking at whatever altered the good corporal."

"Can you shut it down?" The soldier asked, whilst checking the now empty alcoves, and finding nothing.

"Most definitely, but I won't. Are you sure that sending the others back was wise?" Rush said, changing the subject with the fluidity of a master.

"Better we don't risk more casualties than we have to."

"That would be fine if I weren't a possible casualty."The doctor complained, examining the console with great interest. "Fascinating, there's no way for me to interact with the software."

"What does that mean?" The Lieutenant snapped, circling around the console, waiting for something to emerge.

"It means that I think I know what this is." Rush mused aloud, mild wonderment in his tone. "Wondrously adaptive... but why did it wait so long?"

"Why did what wait?" Greer asked quietly, still moving cautiously around the room.

"Now isn't the time. Sar- lieutenant, I need you to run back and tell Col. Young to gather everyone into the gate room, and bring weapons with you." Rush said urgently, as he tried to prize open a panel to no avail. "Everyone will need to hear this."

Something about the tone got the normally suspicious Greer to accept the order without complaint.

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><p><p>

"What's this all about?" Col. Young demanded, though in a reasonable enough tone."The lieutenant didn't give any details."

Rush stayed quiet for a moment, chewing on his tongue as he sought the best way to broach the topic. "It would seem that we've been boarded/ As of now we are more or less besieged."

"This had better be a practical joke in extremely poor taste, Rush." Lt. Johanson snapped waspishly.

"If only. It would seem that one of the drones stowed away in our last battle." He confided quietly, "I can only presume it was damaged as it's taken this long to actually attack us. Now what's worrying is that this drone has had the wherewithal to try and start building itself reinforcements."

"Damn." Young sighed deeply, looking thoroughly tired. "I assume you have some sort of plan."

"Give everyone a weapon and try and hunt down the original drone." Rush said gruffly, looking almost as tired as the colonel, though admittedly he usually looked like that.

"That's risky." Chloe said quietly from her corner, nevertheless attracting their attention.

"What's risky about it?" Greer asked, "It certainly sounds simple enough."

"Because Dr. Rush here is presuming that any reinforcements are merely being piloted by the original drone, if there's just one, rather than having actually been programmed by it." Chloe explained patiently.

"What does that mean in practical terms?" Greer pressed.

Butting in before the young woman could answer, Rush replied, "It means that if they're piloted then destroying the drone will take out the entire network, otherwise we're as good as finished already."

"Wonderful... just wonderful." The ex-sergeant complained, "So how do we find it?"

"Like I said, search teams going room to room, make sure each team has one of the military personnel and a gun." Dr. Rush repeated, though with a touch more detail before adding, "After the lieutenant has organised the search teams, I'd like to borrow him so Chloe and I can have a closer look at that cylinder, see if we can glean anything from it with a more in-depth analysis. Provided none of you have any logical objections."

"Nuh-uh, not me. If this lets us get the damn thing I'll do whatever's needed." Greer agreed with a nod. "Give me... fifteen minutes."

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><p><p>

Author's Note: Not sure what to say really, just how much I appreciate the number of readers I get even now.


	22. Artificial Stupidity

Author's Note: Well what can be said? No update for a year, I'm quite ashamed. All I can say in my defence is that University had to come first. However all things shall come to pass and thus my long silence shall too. I sincerely hope this has been worth the wait, and that some of you actually remember this fic.

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><p>The stasis room had changed since they'd last been there, now a cyberpunk nightmare with a full set of steampunk trimmings. Pistons fired, mechanisms whirred, and thick steam and smoke suffused the air, almost chokingly thick.<p>

As Greer cleared the room, the very vision of soldierly calm, Dr. Rush and Chloe both moved cautiously to the apparatus in the centre.

"Well this confirms it." Rush said calmly to his coworker as he set down his toolbox and began to try and remove the outer casing – robots having no need for buttons when they could they could upload data directly.

"Definitely seems that way." Chloe replied, agreeing wholeheartedly with Rush's unspoken conclusion.

"What are you two brainiacs babbling about this time?" Greer growled, moving to guard the door, the only apparent source of entrance and egress now that he'd cleared the room.

They'd been quite fortunate on the way here, meeting with minimal additional defences. Whatever the drone was up to, it had yet to upgrade the corridor. The floor and walls were still electrified but that had been dealt with easily and there had been no more of the cyborg psychopaths led in wait for them, a fact which boded well for the crew's safety.

"This is clearly the drone's main hub of operations, the fact there are so many changes says it must have returned as soon as we left, it's avoiding us. Clearly a more advanced model that the first set we ran into, they didn't have the complexity to perform such advanced behavioural routines." Rush clarified.

"In English?" He snapped back, sighting carefully down the corridor.

"It's running scared." Chloe clarified for him, whilst helping the, if not good then at least not objectively bad, doctor unscrew the panel. She personally was quite impressed with the machine, whatever it was, they were having to remove the screws with a series of small magnets, slowly tracing them around in a circle where they lacked any sort of leverage on the heads. It was fortunate that Rush's toolbox was so well stocked.

"It should be." Greer growled.

"Perhaps lieutenant but it does raise some questions in itself. Such as why isn't it building a drone army to defend its central hub?" Rush mused, finally levering the outer casing off to expose an Escheresque nightmare of exposed circuitry and wiring. "Now that's not right."

"What's not right?" The gruff lieutenant snapped, still keeping his eyes on the corridor.

"This circuitry's a mess. Ingenious, but very messy, it's like what we'd end up with if I told you how to solder a new circuit-board for the navigation controls, all perfectly correct but it looks terrible." Rush shook his head in disappointment.

"It could be a simple lack of correct tools." Chloe pointed out, carefully stripping the protective coating from a wire, deft hands tying in the connector for their tablets. "I imagine it's quite difficult using a plasma weapon as a soldering iron. Now let's see what we've got here."

The two began tapping away at their tablets, apparently oblivious to the world around them, occasionally one would make a small comment, a quiet "Hmm..." or "Interesting."

* * *

><p>The searches had been completely without success. News which had made Col. Young increasingly irritable and snappish.<p>

"It could be worse." Lt. Johansen pointed out, "At least everyone actually has reported in."

"True." He agreed begrudgingly, "but more and more I ask myself how many more losses we can take."

"None, but we will take losses, it's inevitable, a simple function of life." TJ said as reasonably as was possible, voicing a platitude even she didn't fully believe despite the truth of the words.

"Doesn't mean I have to like it."

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><p>In the former stasis room Rush was beginning to get irritated, as best he could see the device served little purpose other than some kind of data storage. A senseless waste of space that only further reinforced Chloe's theory of the drone having to work by plasma gun.<p>

Another frustration was the encryption. He and Chloe had been trying to get past it for several hours at this point, with less than no success, but that wasn't the really annoying part, the really annoying part was how familiar the encryption seemed.

If he didn't know better he could have sworn that a person had written the code before him, the data had an organic feel to it, not something a machine would produce, just yet another sign of how much more advance this drone was to its predecessors.

Greer was getting equally impatient as he kept a careful eye on the corridor for the drone's return, determined to ensure machine wouldn't get past him.

* * *

><p>The drone watched the humans work with caution from it's position in the shadow of the rafters, powered down to all but minimal settings as the humans undid so much of its hard work. It was getting difficult to cope with the two conflicting directives within its software, even as upgraded as it was.<p>

One directive instructed it to kill the interlopers and destroy their electronic technology, as all such drones would.

The other, far far more recent, directive was both crudely attached on yet far better written, managing to bypass almost entirely its prime directive – it had proved impossible for the hacker to entirely get past it, the directive both in the hardware and the software.

This new directive was insistently ordering it to reveal itself to the humans and then lead it to the master. Not to kill the humans, an instructive it had had to get highly creative to get around, but also to preserve itself until it introduced them to the master.

And so it watched, waiting for the scientist to pick up the trail of digital breadcrumbs left for it, all the while instructions of death and destruction were screaming in its HUD, but it wouldn't target the scientist. Eli would have been far too upset.

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><p>Author's Note: Cliffhanger much?<p> 


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